Ring traveler



March 3,1970 w. SALJDAG' R' 3,498,041

' V RING TRAVEL R med Feb 5'. 196a a "a, a a fa I flIII IIIIII wil Y I to ('0 i 8 39 20 [8 F I G- 8 INVENTOR.

WILLIAM SANDAGER ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,498,041 RING TRAVELER William Sandager, North Dighton, Mass., assignor to Leesona Corporation, Warwick, R.I., a corporation of Massachusetts Filed Feb. 5, 1968, Ser. No. 702,863 Int. Cl. D01h 7/60, 15/00 US. Cl. 57--125 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to yarn guiding apparatus in textile machinery and, more particularly, to a ring traveler for winding or twisting machines.

In the following specification, the term yarn is used in a general sense to mean all types of strand material, either textile or otherwise.

In a patent application of Charles C. Bell et al., Ser. No. 534,081, filed Mar. 14, 1966, now US. Patent No. 3,406,866, issued Oct. 1, 1968, and assigned to Leesona Corporation, apparatus is disclosed for automatically threading-up a spinning or twisting machine. According to the Bell et al. disclosure, an advancing strand of yarn is moved from a distant position to a position held against a supporting and guiding ring. A traveler is mounted for movement on the ring and is propelled by means of an appropriately directed fluid jet to move around the ring and entrap the strand for subsequent winding onto a take-up spindle. Although the apparatus disclosed in the cited application has been generally satisfactory, it has been found that when relatively coarse yarn is wound, the traveler may fail to properly engage the yarn for advancing about the ring in suitable threaded relationship with the yarn.

The invention is directed to provision of a beveled or offset surface portion adjacent a leading region of the traveler for enabling the traveler to engage the strand. When the traveler is propelled against the strand the offset portion slides across the strand and at the same time, the strand serves as a fulcrum for the traveler causing the traveler to rotate thereby providing a sufficiently enlarged opening between the traveler and the ring to permit movement of the traveler over the strand, so as to operatively engage an eye or strand holding portion of the traveler with the strand.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide new and improved strand guiding apparatus for a spinning or twisting machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide, for a spinning or twisting machine, a new and improved traveler having a beveled or offset portion engageable with a strand of yarn for directing the traveler over the strand.

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will be presented in the description which follows taken together with the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of a spinning machine embodying the invention and illustrating one position of parts of the machine;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view similar to FIG. 1 and illustrating another position of the parts;

ICC

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary side elevation view of certain parts illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a section view taken substantially along lines 44 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a section view taken substantially alOng lines 55 in FIG. 3; and

FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 are section views similar to FIG. 5 illustrating successive positions of a part.

Refer now to the drawings and initially to FIGS. 1 and 2 which illustrate a spinning or twisting machine provided with an automatic thread-up mechanism 10. An advancing strand of yarn Y is moved by a forked finger 12 of the mechanism 10 from a distant position (FIG. 1) to a thread-up position (FIG. 2) in which the strand is adjacent a ring 14 and extends generally circumferentially along a portion of the ring and then upwardly past the finger 12. The ring 14 is fixedly secured to a rail 16 are ranged to be suitably raised and lowered in the course of winding the strand onto an upright bobbin B. The ring 14 (see especially FIGS. 3 and 4) includes a generally Vertically disposed annular track 18 which has a horizontal flange 20 at its upper edge.

As seen especially in FIG. 4, a traveler 22 includes a body 24 having an eye or strand holding portion 26 adapted to receive and hold the strand of yarn Y. When the traveler is at rest on the ring 14 the top of the eye portion 26 sits on the ring flange 20. The traveler has an inlet portion 27 opening into the eye portion 26 and defined by opposed surfaces 28 on inwardly extending fingers 29 at the bottom of the traveler body 24. These surfaces 28 are opposed to and slightly spaced from opposite side faces 30 of the ring track 18 so that when the traveler 22 moves to the position shown in FIG. 7 the strand of yarn Y may be received between the ring and an outer one of the opposed surfaces 28.

Mounted integrally with the forked finger 12 and serving as another element of the thread-up mechanism 10 is a conduit 34 (FIGS. 1 and 2) having a nozzle 36 directed slightly downwardly and laterally relative to the finger 12 for aiming a jet of pressurized fluid tangentially against an inner circumferential surface of the track 18. When the forked finger 12 is in the thread-up position illustrated in FIG. 2, the fluid jet issuing from the nozzle 36 impinges on this inner surface of the track 18 and a resulting swirl of fluid is effective to accelerate the traveler 22 from rest and to move it against the strand Y being held against the ring 14 by the finger 12.

FIG. 5 illustrates the traveler 22 as it approaches the strand of yarn Y being held by the finger 12. As the traveler 22 advances circumferentially around the ring 14 to engage the yarn, the traveler may be in an extreme position as shown in FIG. 5. As the yarn is engaged the traveler moves to an opposite extreme position as shown in FIG. 6. The outer one of the opposed traveler surfaces 28, that is the surface 28 adjacent the outer face 30 of the ring track 18, is provided with an offset portion 38 which is beveled or angularly disposed relative to an adjacent portion 39 of the surface 28 and to a leading region 40 of the traveler 22, to define when the traveler 22 is moved in a counterclockwise direction (FIG. 2) by the jet of fluid issuing from the nozzle 36, a V-shaped opening between the traveler and the ring track for receiving the yarn. It will be appreciated that the beveled or offset portion 38 need not be straight, but may be rounded so as to have a relatively large radius of curvature. With continued movement of the traveler 22, the portion 38 engages the strand of yarn Y (see FIG. 6) which causes the traveler 22 to rotate in a clockwise di reetion to the position shown in FIG. 7. As the offset portion 38 slides across the yarn, the traveler 22 is moved laterally outwardly relative to the track 18 until it assumes the position seen in FIG. 7, permitting movement of the yarn into the eye or holding portion 26 for operative guiding relationship with the traveler 22 (see FIG. 8

To accomplish this result, it is desirable that the OE- set portion 38 be spaced from the track 18 at the inlet region 42 by a distance at least as great as a diameter of the strand Y when the traveler assumes the position indicated in FIG. 5. In this manner, the offset portion 38 is assured of sliding across the strand Y to rotate the traveler 22 and to move the traveler laterally outwardly relative to the track 18 to permit movement of the strand Y for encirclement by the traveler.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it should be recognized that the invention is capable of other and further embodiments and that they may be modified in various ways, all without departing from the, invention defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A traveler adapted to be moved around a traveler ring by propelling means for engagement with a strand of yarn disposed adjacent a first side of said traveler ring, the yarn upon engagement by said traveler being guided thereby to a takeup bobbin, said traveler including a curved body portion terminating in opposing first and second inturned end sections, said first end section being situated proximate to said first side of said traveler ring and said second section being situated proximate to the opposite side of said traveler ring to thus engage said traveler on said traveler ring for movement therearound, said curved body portion having opposing first and second side walls joining said end sections, said first side Wall joining said first end section at generally right angles and being disposed for contact by said propelling means and said second side Wall interconnecting with said first end section in a zone defining a notch between said curved body member and said first side of the traveler ring, the open end of said notch being at least as great as the diameter of the strand whereby the strand may enter said notch as said traveler is moved by said propelling means.

2. A traveler as set forth in claim 1 wherein said curved body portion defines a strand guiding portion through which the strand flows to said take-up bobbin, and an inlet region affording entry of the strand into said guiding portion, said inlet region being between said first and second end sections.

3. A traveler as set forth in claim 2 wherein said second side Wall and said first end section interconnect Within said zone along a smooth inclined surface providing a yarn guide therealong to said inlet region.

4. A traveler as set forth in claim 3 wherein said surface is rectilinear across the fnll extent of said zone.

5. A traveler as set forth in claim 1 wherein said first and second side walls interconnect with said second end section at substantially right angles.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 95,261 9/1869 Pierce 57125 772,527 10/1904 Mellett 57125 1,464,674 8/1923 Gilligan 57125 1,953,323 4/1934 Wentworth 57125 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,432 1900 Great Britain.

JOHN PETRAKES, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 5734 

